I’ve done my second trip to Hollister Hills park this weekend, to a Hudner Ranch section of it. This time I felt more prepared: I had my compressor with me and MaxSA traction pads. I’ve aired done tires and caressed the gate.

I finally started feeling the benefits of TRD suspension. I was going 30mph and it was comfortable. I remember the day when we went camping to Mendocino Forest. I was afraid that MDX would fall apart. Tundra is definitely doing much better job off-road. I’m sure most of it comes from tires.

So I’ve done all green trails and then switched to blue trails. Had no issues with clearance or break-over angle. It was raining last week so there were some mud puddles and they caused some challenges on uphill sections. but nothing that TRD Pro could not cope with.

I’ve also seen some crazy UTV drivers that were doing probably 40-50mph on trails with limited view. I’m sure that’s a lot of fun, but hey, safety first.

Another good lesson is that off-road vehicle alone is not enough. Driver has to have some experience. I’ve seen a Jeep Wrangler that was really struggling to climb over some muddy hills. He was just not using momentum right and steering in a weird manner.

I guess we all learned something new this day.

The one thing that I did not like about TRD Pro wheels, as they collect a lot of mud on the inner side, and it messes up the wheel balancing. On my way back I had to stop multiple times and tried to get out the mud form between rim and break rotors. I even stopped at coin car wash and used some high pressure water, but that did not help much. I’ve ended up driving home at 55mph (instead of 65-75mph usual highway speed).

About Me

Hello everybody!
My name is Eugene. I’m a husband, father and have a full time office job. And, like it’s not enough, I have bunch of hobbies.
I’ve decided to start this blog as I believe there are many people who share same interests as I do. Hopefully, someone mind find my work, experiments and observations useful or even inspirational.
Stick around!